Schedule Introduction
Featured in
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"A UX design lab helping ambitious companies uplevel key touchpoints of their product experience."
Milan Baić
Holistic
Audit
research, measure & audit
Examining all visual touchpoints of the product, UX, brand and onboarding and to understand gaps and opportunities to improve.
Product Design
ux/ui & design systems
Improving onboarding, user experience and interface design to assume market position as the leading product experience.
Design
Leadership
Growing & Mentoring Teams
As a design champion with over 15 years of experience, I utilize user research and data to drive teams, product design and revenue.
"Space" Holistic Design System
Incorporating design systems thinking early can accelerate a startup's agility and ability to offer a cohesive user experience, driving growth and success. Here I incorporated a real-world example of a holistic design system we developed that became the guiding framework for diverse areas, including branding, product, marketing, onboarding, and even package design.
Head of Design
Design Systems
Principal Product Designer
DealTap® Transaction Platform
Founded and designed the world’s first end-to-end transaction workflow platform designed for residential Real Estate. With over 1200 active users, DealTap was the leading provider of paperless transaction services for Ontario Realtors. After over $18.5MM raised, DealTap was acquired by First Canadian Title In Q2 2019.
Founder & CEO
Inventor, Patent Holder
Chairman of the Board
Head of Product
Head of Design
SpaceCard® Mobile VR Platform
SpaceCard® is a Toronto-based startup and multi-year R&D project completed in collaboration with the Federal Government and University Research Labs. Milan has led SpaceCard® development and IP in machine vision, optics, industrial design and UX to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing VR today.
Founder & CEO
Inventor, Patent Holder
Head of Product
Head of Design
Technical Lead, SDK
Early Stage Startup Launches
Strategically positioning, designing and conveying how early stage products solve user problems is a deeply integrated process. In partnering with founders, I work to ensure their startups get at the core elements of the market problem and succinctly convey the motivations, experience and benefits using design thinking.
Strategy & Product Positioning
Head of Design
Product Experience Lead
Floorsie™ Elevator Automation
A design research project focused on tackling the spread of COVID-19 on high touch-volume surfaces. Floorsie is a speech operated robotic arm used to equip traditional elevators for touch less operation for lower disease transmission.
Product Strategy
Product Industrial Design
Brand & Visual Design
VR User Interface Research
VR UI/UX is vastly different from the experiences we are used to on our screens. How can we translate many of the same interfaces we interact with on 2D displays and expand them into immersive spaces? This was my challenge and learnings from this research extended to many future projects.
Experience Design
User Interface Design & Simulations
User Interface Prototyping
PinchVR® Smartphone Case
PinchVR® Smartphone Case is the consumer solution for everyday VR. Through a successful crowdfunding campaign and broad press coverage, PinchVR® captured the imagination of the VR market and ultimately led to the development of several technologies that formed the foundation for SpaceCard.
Founder & CEO
Inventor, Patent Holder
Head of Product
Head of Design
Technical Lead, SDK
Cordon® Digital Experience Design
What if digital showroom experiences were so big, and so interactive that they completely immersed the customer? This is what I sought to answer with my first company, Cordon Media. Cordon was a boutique agency I founded to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical world in showroom environments.
Founder, CEO
Experience Design Lead
Creative Director
Identifying Product Opportunities
↓
The Hypothesis, The Customer
& The Pivot
Everything begins with an idea and a series of untested hypotheses. The challenge of where to allocate capital should be based on which product opportunity can create the most value. Quantifying hypotheses and their potential for value creation is filtered through first principles methodologies before we move to the business model canvas.
Instead of writing an intricate business plan, we summarize hypotheses in a framework called a business model canvas. Essentially, this is a diagram of how a company creates value for itself and its customers.
Designing Product
Value
↓
Holistic & Multidisciplinary
Design Thinking
The days of front-loading costs and assumptions to proceed down the conveyor belt of product and brand development are over. The key is to iteratively prototype the business, product and brand in simultaneous channels thereby maximizing the value equation early. This design thinking process reduces risk and enables stakeholders to get to the core of optimizing capital allocation for new product opportunities. The holistic process adapts the product and brand to the customer incrementally, inch by inch, until the equation is solved.
The elements of the value equation are as follows:
Dream Customer Outcome
Branding. The product vision personified in a clear brand value proposition based on identified pain.
Perceived likelihood of Achievement
Marketing. The effectiveness of the product perception through the visual language and storytelling.
Time Delay
Design & UX. The product experience, design and usability to achieve the product tasks.
Effort & Sacrifice
Onboarding & Price. The obstacles of price, onboarding and auxiliary experiences of touch points around the product.
Building, Measuring, Learning
↓
UX Design & Management Frameworks
The product UX design process aims at making products more useful and easy to use thereby reducing the time and effort aspect of the value equation. Many frameworks such as the lean methodology can be deployed to keep close to the end user in ‘build-measure-learn’ feedback loops.
Once an MVP is established, the engine is tuned to validate preconceived ideas by carefully testing a customer's reaction. This feedback is then analyzed to determine whether to remain on course or pivot. The framework favors experimentation over elaborate planning and customer feedback over intuition.
Conveying
the Dream Outcome
↓
Brand Identity
& Perception Design
Here we aim to shape product perception and storytelling to drive demand in the value equation. The product hypothesis is developed into an overall vision whereby a brand establishes a visual language, product story and tone.
The strength of a product’s vision is reinforced by its ability to resonate with customers as well as the team. Product storytelling, creative differentiation and visual sophistication are all key elements to successfully conveying the dream outcome to the customer.
Milan Baić is an award-winning design leader with 15+ years of delivering cutting edge end-to-end product experiences.
I am the ‘zero-to-one’ fire starter with a first principles mindset in approaching new product and innovation challenges. As a design champion, I have a proven track record of building, coaching and leading teams to elevate user experiences.
I am experienced in leading design teams from research, prototyping, design execution to implementation while aligning user needs and business objectives. I am driven by a forward-thinking approach to user-centered design with a focus on cross-functional alignment, design performance and team efficiency.
Validating product opportunities with research enables me to foster a data-driven culture that supports continuous learning and growth. I am highly self-motivated and hands-on with strong attention to detail and comfort with ambiguity. As an advocate of design thinking I help companies foster a user-centric culture, with an obsession to solve user needs at the intersection of research, design excellence and product vision.
Areas of Interest
and Expertise
Startups
& Scaleups
Human Computer Interaction
Retail
Customer Experience
Real Estate Architecture
Metaverse VR/AR
Professional Sports
Workflow Automation
Immersive Learning
Consumer Devices
Jason Lee
5G Strategy and Innovation
Rogers Communications
"Milan’s passion, dedication, and true understanding of the XR space is exemplary of the entrepreneurs that drive Canada’s technology ecosystem. As we head into the fourth industrial revolution, I am excited to witness some of the game changing developments enabled by SpaceCard, particularly around mobile, accessible and immersive collaboration. The benefits from next generation networking for society will only be possible through the innovative applications developed by entrepreneurs like Milan. It leaves me with optimism to know that folks like Milan will be part of the driving force in shaping our future."
Profile
René Azeez
Director of Venture Engagement
MaRS Discovery District
"MaRS is selective in terms of its aspiration to work with disruptive Canadian technology companies, like SpaceCard, that we believe are going to shape the innovation economy of the future. The potential for SpaceCard is significant and we’re looking forward to supporting Milan and his team as they continue to grow."
Profile
David Neumann
Emerging Technology Programs
Humber College
"SpaceCard is an amazing VR platform with exciting potential. The ability to have a low-cost, low barrier to entry VR device that allows for 6 DOF is incredible. At Humber College we have had a number of students explore SpaceCard and they have been both impressed by the device, the ease of use, and also the potential, from supplementary health science learning to visual merchandising simulations, SpaceCard has massive potential in the educational learning space."
Profile
Alex Dakic
VP Product Management & Design
Moka Financial Technologies
"Milan delivered visual systems, creative and brand assets that encapsulated our startup MVP. As a fellow founder, Milan understood the needs of the business and how to package our startup in a unique and captivating format for investors and early adopters. Milan delivered on minimal direction and utilized contemporary tools to enable us to stand out as new entrants in the marketplace."
Profile
Sameer Lalji
Chief Product Officer
VerticalScope Inc.
"From the first time I met Milan, I knew he was a visionary, a dreamer. He liked to see things far in the future and then attempt to realize his dreams. He is a jovial presence in the office, who understands the industry and space better than most. Milan is a man who knows how to recognize people for their strengths. He then has the ability to give them the key to their future."
Profile
Aamir Qadri
Chief Operating Officer & Head of Product
Instashowing.com
"Milan has an uncanny ability to identify challenges with customer experiences. He is a product leader and visionary who has an unwavering belief in “best product wins”. His relentless pursuit of this ideal, makes him a force to be reckoned with from a product and design perspective. Add to this, his infectious personality, determination, and his ability to inspire the best from his team and you have the embodiment of the dynamic leader that he is. Milan gave me a great deal of trust and autonomy, he let me pursue initiatives I believed in and constantly relied on me for the “on the ground” perspective to bolster the product’s value prop. I am grateful for the time we worked together, and am sad to see him move on to his next pursuit."
Profile
Evan Karasick
President
Channel 1 Media
"Cordon focuses on innovation. Lead by creative director, Milan Baic, the team continually examines projects from a unique perspective. Their approach is aimed at deciphering the most logical yet progressive means of developing new multimedia tools using the latest technological advancements."
Profile
Michael Moretto
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Prophetia Analytics
"Milan originally brought me into DealTap to help with third party investment, since then I have had the opportunity to work with him in different capacities on various projects. Milan is an incredible visionary with a passion for technology, design and consumer experience. His ability to anticipate consumer needs and design a product around them is truly remarkable. He assembled a fantastic team at DealTap and has an uncanny ability to identify rockstar talent."
Profile
